"I feared he would not stop. I had no other option, I had no other choice." - Shawn Thompson

Defense attorney Matthew Monaghan wasted no time when his client, Shawn Thompson, took the witness stand to testify at his Dauphin County murder trial Tuesday afternoon.

Thompson, 34, of Harrisburg, is accused of fatally stabbing Tyrone Manley, 21, of York, during a February 2012 fight on Harrisburg's Restaurant Row.

Harrisburg's Restaurant Row on North Second StreetMatt Miller, PennLive

"Did you stab Tyrone Manley?" Monaghan asked

"Yes," Thompson replied.

"How many times did you stab him?" Monaghan continued.

"Four times," Thompson said.

"Why did you stab him?" Monaghan asked.

"I feared for my life," Thompson answered.

That is the gist of Thompson's defense.

He told the jury he stabbed Manley because the much larger man had attacked him and seemed to be beating him to death.

The altercation stemmed from an argument the two had after Manley shoved him as they left the former Dragonfly Club in the 200 block of North Second Street at closing time, Thompson said.

First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo is seeking convictions on murder, robbery and carjacking charges. He claims Thompson wasn't justified in stabbing Manley and that Thompson tried to hijack a taxi as he fled the scene of the killing.

A conviction in the case could send Thompson to prison for life.

During his testimony, Thompson portrayed himself as a desperate man who was on the losing end of a fight he didn't seek.

He claimed that soon after the shoving incident Manley sucker-punched him, knocked him to the ground and then someone kicked him in the head, bouncing his face off the concrete sidewalk.

He rose and fought Manley, but the much larger younger man had him overmatched, Thompson said. Manley was even bouncing him off a brick wall as a crowd gathered in a circle around them, he said.

Thompson said he pulled a folding knife from his pocket and began stabbing Manley because "I feared he would not stop. I had no other option, I had no other choice."

He said he had to stab Manley four times before Manley stopped the assault. Manley paused at one point after the stabbing began, but then resumed pummeling him, he said

Thompson said when Manley at last backed off he dropped the knife and fled through the crowd. Another man followed him, he said, so he ran, even kicking off his shoes to go faster.

When he saw a taxi van with the passenger side sliding door open, he jumped in and told the driver, "Go! Go! Go!," but the driver refused and the two got into an argument until police arrived and arrested him, Thompson said.

He denied trying to steal the cab. Under Chardo's questioning, Thompson claimed that he didn't assault the taxi driver, even though the driver testified earlier that Thompson had attacked him.

"You weren't trying to pull him out of the driver's seat?" Chardo asked.

"No," Thompson insisted.

Chardo and Monaghan both went over Thompson's criminal record, which includes convictions and prison terms for charges including receiving stolen property and making false reports to police.

Thompson, who is not related to Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson, said he didn't recall telling police after his arrest that he is the mayor's nephew. City Detective Jason Paul testified that Shawn Thompson did claim the mayor was his aunt.

Chardo outlined Manley's stab wounds to the upper chest, the heart, the abdomen and an arm, and asked Thompson if he felt the knife going into Manley's body.

"I was swinging the knife out of fear, so I can't really answer that question," Thompson said.

He also denied a claim by Chardo that he had been researching self-defense strategies in the law library of the county prison, where he has been held since his arrest.

Shawn Thompson

The only other witness called by Monaghan was Austin Dodge, an Army veteran of Afghanistan who saw the fatal fight.

Dodge, who said he never got a clear look at Thompson's face, testified that he saw a larger man beating up on a smaller man. At one point the larger man backed off, as if catching his breath, then resumed the assault, he said.

He said he never saw either man with a weapon.

The case will go to the jury after Chardo and Monaghan make their closing arguments Wednesday.

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